Kali-Yuga:Cheaper than buying it on the street in my experience, and from what I've heard from friends that are in L.A. , there are so many dispensaries around L.A. that the prices are the lowest anywhere.

Kali-Yuga:Cheaper than buying it on the street in my experience, and from what I've heard from friends that are in L.A. , there are so many dispensaries around L.A. that the prices are the lowest anywhere.

Yeah, the dispensaries have really good deals, they are killing out the weed dealers here in the Bay. Low, mid, and high end bud is all cheaper at the club than on the streets.

Mugato:Kevin72: Anything is more expensive than simply growing a weed ... especially one that grows like a weed.

I was going to say that. There aren't years of R&D to pay for, is there processing of some sort?

I'm waiting for legalization just to be able to grow it as a houseplant since it grows so easily. The guys talking about Appleseeding apparently are talking about cloning and spreading the good stuff for mutual benefit.

My cousin had 600 legal high-quality plants for the medical market, in the Redding area. One night, someone shot his dog and took his plants, as he and his wife slept. Can you imagine the police not helping? You bet, they did not help. Farkers!

I don't mind the "medical" marijuana, but I do mind what seems to be excessive profit taking. In theory aren't these businesses supposed to be working for the benefit of their patients? If that were true then they would be charging a price that's closer to what they but the product for, lowering the cost to the patients and letting them keep more money in their pockets and increase their quality of life (or buy more twinkies as the case may be.)

Mugato:Kevin72: Anything is more expensive than simply growing a weed ... especially one that grows like a weed.

I was going to say that. There aren't years of R&D to pay for, is there processing of some sort?

You need mega security for the farms, harvesting labor, and yes there's processing for QC as well as to make byproducts. Sometimes there are climate issues wipe out whole seasons of crops (mold). I guess the closest correlation would be winemaking, though on a more modest scale.

wax_on:I don't mind the "medical" marijuana, but I do mind what seems to be excessive profit taking. In theory aren't these businesses supposed to be working for the benefit of their patients? If that were true then they would be charging a price that's closer to what they but the product for, lowering the cost to the patients and letting them keep more money in their pockets and increase their quality of life (or buy more twinkies as the case may be.)

wax_on:I don't mind the "medical" marijuana, but I do mind what seems to be excessive profit taking. In theory aren't these businesses supposed to be working for the benefit of their patients? If that were true then they would be charging a price that's closer to what they but the product for, lowering the cost to the patients and letting them keep more money in their pockets and increase their quality of life (or buy more twinkies as the case may be.)

So there's no clause in the law that "allows" these businesses to make sales or profits. How did they expect this to work? How could a dispensary operate without sales? Would the growers just give the stuff away, you know, out of the kindness of their hearts? Were they supposed to be so stoned they'd forget to ask for payment?

This sounds to me like a farking racket. Set up an atmosphere that generates billions though it's not really legal though it is but it really isn't. Then bring in the cops who get to do what they do best: make up excuses in order to steal money, drugs and guns.

On a side note, when the economy collapses, who do you think is going to be in charge? If you answer: the heavily armed paramilitary forces stationed in every city and town in the country, then you and I are thinking along the same lines. Sounds like fun, huh? Fiefdom's run by ignorant racist violent assholes who already murder without consequence.

gleaningtheboob:This sounds to me like a farking racket. Set up an atmosphere that generates billions though it's not really legal though it is but it really isn't. Then bring in the cops who get to do what they do best: make up excuses in order to steal money, drugs and guns.

Sounds to me like Big Pharma is greasing someone's palms to make the distribution of medical marijuana confusing and prohibitive.

gleaningtheboob:This sounds to me like a farking racket. Set up an atmosphere that generates billions though it's not really legal though it is but it really isn't. Then bring in the cops who get to do what they do best: make up excuses in order to steal money, drugs and guns.

That's what I read out of this. California should just man up and admit to being purposely shady and have the state distribute it. That's what Virginia is considering.

I live in Denver, Colorado, and can get very good quality medical mj for $130 to $150 an ounce. Very high quality stuff is rarely over $220 to $240 an ounce. Here, we made it legal to make a profit. California's nightmare of enforcement brought about by the non-profit nature of their dispensaries is broken, horribly.

Philbb:Honest Bender: Hmm, maybe I missed it, but there's no indication as to why the police were conducting these raids. And so what if they're making money? Maybe they're just moving a lot of inventory?

And who cares how much they make? If we're going to regulate how much profit they can make, then let's start doing that for the medical industry as a whole.

The amount of profit is of interest because these are supposedly nonprofit organizations.

How much profit can you make before you lose your nonprofit status?

Californian here. The problem isn't that they're making a profit, or even a lot of profit. It's that they're not declaring it, for one thing, and for another, a non-profit corporation has to show they're not in it to MAKE a profit. The whole idea behind the dispensaries was that they not become profitable while not paying taxes on the product. If you're in retail, you have to pay taxes on that profit, and tax your customers. The idea was to keep the dispensaries from being businesses, and that was the dispensary-owners stated purpose. That was how CA got around the Feds' prohibition of selling drugs--if there's no profit to the business, it's not really "selling" it, it's just an even exchange.

What's happened is that these shops have started running businesses, meaning they should be charging sales tax and filing it with the IRS and state, and by failing to do so they're inviting more scrutiny than was intended. The state drug enforcement could look the other way if they were just providing a service; but now they have to look back again. So again, by being unable to play by the rules, a few douchebags have ruined it for everyone else.

Mugato:Sounds to me like Big Pharma is greasing someone's palms to make the distribution of medical marijuana confusing and prohibitive.

I don't think it really matters who's pulling the strings. The bottom line is private citizens and businessmen in some funky legal limbo are getting millions stolen from them by the government (not that this is anything new) while the cops find yet another reason to steal cash, weapons and drugs.

Thinking again though I do see your point. We've already seen private corporations employing the police for protection and strike breaking so, if you're right, how is this any different? Welcome to the future of corporate fascism.